REGION POSES CHALLENGE FOR AID DELIVERY
Thomas Fuller
The New York Times, May 6, 2008
The area worst affected by the cyclone that struck Myanmar on Saturday is a vast and populous delta crisscrossed by canals and inlets, qualities that are likely to make the damage extensive and delivering aid extraordinarily difficult.
Many villages in the delta of the Irrawaddy River are accessible only by boat or helicopter. Much of the region, former swampland that was converted during British colonial times into one of the world’s largest rice-growing areas, is exceptionally fertile but difficult to traverse.
Aid workers say delivering food, clean water and other supplies to far-flung villages will require an intensive response.
“Our fear is that many in the rural population have been cut off,” said Paul Risley, the spokesman in Asia for the World Food Program, a United Nations agency. “In some villages, 90 percent of shelter was destroyed or damaged.”
Sean Turnell, an expert on Myanmar at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, said the region’s infrastructure “was degraded to begin with.” Before the cyclone hit, dikes had collapsed, irrigation systems had failed and bridges were sometimes impassable, Mr. Turnell said.
(...) [artículo aquí]
Thomas Fuller
The New York Times, May 6, 2008
The area worst affected by the cyclone that struck Myanmar on Saturday is a vast and populous delta crisscrossed by canals and inlets, qualities that are likely to make the damage extensive and delivering aid extraordinarily difficult.
Many villages in the delta of the Irrawaddy River are accessible only by boat or helicopter. Much of the region, former swampland that was converted during British colonial times into one of the world’s largest rice-growing areas, is exceptionally fertile but difficult to traverse.
Aid workers say delivering food, clean water and other supplies to far-flung villages will require an intensive response.
“Our fear is that many in the rural population have been cut off,” said Paul Risley, the spokesman in Asia for the World Food Program, a United Nations agency. “In some villages, 90 percent of shelter was destroyed or damaged.”
Sean Turnell, an expert on Myanmar at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, said the region’s infrastructure “was degraded to begin with.” Before the cyclone hit, dikes had collapsed, irrigation systems had failed and bridges were sometimes impassable, Mr. Turnell said.
(...) [artículo aquí]
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